1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multilayer ceramic capacitor and a method of fabricating the same, and more particularly, to a multilayer ceramic capacitor capable of preventing cracking and delamination due to a difference in thermal expansion coefficients while stably securing capacitance and a method of fabricating the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a multilayer ceramic capacitor includes a plurality of ceramic dielectric sheets and internal electrodes inserted between the plurality of ceramic dielectric sheets. The multilayer ceramic capacitor can implement high capacitance with a small size and can be easily mounted on a substrate, such that it has been widely used as a capacitive part for various electronic devices.
Recently, with the development of compact multi-functional electronic products, chip components are becoming smaller yet having higher performances. As a result, there has been increased demand for a compact and highly capacitive multilayer ceramic capacitor. Therefore, a multilayer ceramic capacitor having a thickness of 2 μm and a stack of 500 layers or more has recently been fabricated.
However, a volume ratio occupied by internal electrode layers increases due to the thinning and high lamination of the ceramic dielectric layers, such that cracking or dielectric breakdown may occur in the ceramic laminate due to thermal impact applied to a circuit board by firing, reflow solder, or the like during a mounting process or the like.
In detail, cracking occurs when stress generated due to the difference in thermal expansion coefficients between materials forming the ceramic layer and the internal electrode layer is applied to the ceramic laminate. In particular, cracking mainly occurs at both edges of the upper and lower portions of the multilayer ceramic capacitor.